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The Example, The Method, and The Community
The procession towards gaining a pure understanding of the reality of existence while minimising the influence of ego and perception is a task that takes dedication and motivation on behalf of the seeker. Most seekers start out by realising that, to borrow a line from a fibre advertisement, there is a “better kind of normal”. This can be due to a large number of individual reasons which prompts the seeker to initiate the search.
The search can be the self inspection/introspection in order to “find oneself” or to shop around the well known, and not so well known, spiritual and religious traditions. This often brings people back to the teachings of their culture and/or parents or to experiment with more non-traditional teachings. At this stage the seekers are prime targets for cults and destructive teachings that isolate the seeker from the community for the betterment of the cult or its leaders.
But how do you know when a cult is a cult? Most belief systems have three elements: The Example/Teacher, The Method/Teaching, and The Community.
The Example/Teacher. Is the person that delivered the teaching and showed the efficacy of the teaching as a living example of the effectiveness of the teaching. There are specific qualities that make for a good teacher – certainly how they live their life is an example. Their life should not be at odds with their teachings. They should not be claiming a higher status than that of a teacher or coach for the seeker. This includes those that claim that they are incarnations of Jesus, Living Buddha’s, the next coming, etc.
The Method/Teaching. The method/teaching that is espoused should be logical and provide more than just “have faith” by providing a daily practice that provides a base of behaviour that is conducive to spiritual development that is based on service to others, reduction of ego and the stripping of learned behaviours and criticism. It should not be based on indulgence or damage to self or others. The teaching is more important than the teacher and the teaching and the behaviour of the teacher will provide the proof of the teaching.
The Community. The Community is the community of seekers that support the journey. The identification of the community can be difficult in that there is a community of seekers, of teachers, of practitioners and of people outside of the community. All of them need to work together and be accepting of all and the teaching should provide guidance for those that are outside or critical of the community of seekers. The key to this guidance is that ultimately we are all connected in some way and therefore to be discriminatory of others is to foster discrimination of self.
The journey of reduction of the Ego Hound to allow the Spirit Dog to thrive is not easy and very threatening to some who value their own perception of “self” in that the journey results in the destruction of what they perceive and value.
Which dog will you feed today?
Contemplation
It is amazing how focussing on the inward allows us to realise the external.
For this reason all traditions benefit from meditation in order to give the thoughts initiated by, and that nourish, the Ego Hound to subside.
Breathe in, Breathe out, being aware of each breath deprives the distractive thoughts to fade.
Practice Practice Practice
Even traditions that have mantras, prayers, and utterances provide the opportunity to focus on the meaning and intent of the words by way of meditation.
Next time you utter those lines taught since you were a child – think about what the meaning and intent.
And the “A’ha” will follow.
Action
The most effective form of worship is working for the betterment of others with the motivation of love and compassion and the realisation that we are all one in creation.
Source of Happiness
Wishing Happiness for others and being happy and content for ourselves relies on a source of none.
Happiness is as natural a state as the sky is blue.
Occasionally obscured by clouds of our own making but blue and clear nonetheless.
Does the wishing and getting of wants result in a happiness that is lasting and sustainable?
Does the indulgence of momentary distractions result in a happiness that is lasting and sustainable?
Does the pursuit of sensory satisfaction result in a happiness that is lasting and sustainable?
Does the elimination of suffering in all its forms result in a happiness that is lasting and sustainable?
Happiness
The wish to be Happy is normal.
The wish for all your friends to be Happy is commendable.
The wish for all those you have negative thoughts towards to be Happy is Noble.
The wish for ALL to be happy is the start to true Happiness for you and all others.
Does God have a Willy?
Puzzled. God is a he, a male, masculine, has male bits, a “Y” chromosome, a willy? Well in the English version of the “good” books God is referred to as “He”. In other languages with non-gender specific third person references God is not allocated a male or female gender. So are we really supposed to visualise God as male or in human form?
Why is there a preference/requirement to allocate a male gender to the concept of God? I use the term concept as (my version) God is a concept in that all phenomena is a concept except in this case it is one that is missing “Form”.
In times gone past when explanations required to convince people of the importance and/or relevance of a concept were rooted more in the “ooh aah, that is amazing” rather than the “A’ha that makes sense” the God concept had to be presented as sufficiently powerful to create a sense of Awe in the listener. Given that, at the time, there were groups competing for followers which therefore required a suitably impressive figurehead. My God is better than yours therefore …! And “my God can beat your God in [insert feats of strength here]. This competitive nature creates religious clubs similar to football with supporters of one club convinced that supporting another club is an indication of a lack of intelligence, parenthood, or sanity.
It is for this reason that the “miracles” detailed by the relevant clubs still seem to take pride of place in a lot of the discussions about belief systems with the intent to quote these miracles as justification why their particular club is better than the others. Flying, riding flying horses, water/wine conversion, resurrection, summoning of angels, splitting of the moon, turning arrows into flowers, etc. All impressive but do they have relevance to the purpose of religion?
Given that I see religion as having three elements: Spiritual, Social and Physical, the miracles don’t have much relevance to actually helping us have a better relationship with the Universal Spirit (US)/God. However, it does have the benefit of ensuring that there is a total commitment and faith in the teachings/dogma of the relevant club. The issue arises when the focus is taken off the effective practice of our own faith and transferred to the faulting of other faiths.
So does God/US have a willy? And is God/US human form. Most of the religions teach that we are created in God’s image and that “We are God”. Should that be “We are US”? The issue is that we usually focus on the wrong “we” in that we focus on the “self”. That self that is not real but is the Ego Hound at work. The “we” that is referred to here are the bits that relate to the soul/spirit/consciousness. So “We (the soul/spirit/consciousness)” are created in Gods (Universal Spirits) image or WE are part of the US and not separate from it. Therefore, God/US is not male or female and is not of bodily form therefore not distinctly “human”.
So what IS God to be called if not male/female? Still puzzled.
Scared Aware – Mindfulness in Action
Have you ever had one of those moments where time seems to slow down and your mind is completely and totally focussed on the task at hand with no value judgements, complaints, comparisons or other mind chatter? Sometimes this state is called being “in the zone” and it may happen in moments of abject terror. It is this feeling that adrenalin junkies chase, not so much the adrenalin but the feeling “at one” with something. It is also this promise that Spiritual Materialists (SM) chase (more of SMs in later posts)
I can recall a couple of times where this state of being “in the zone” was brought on by a clear and impending threat to my “self” with the resultant super-heightened state of awareness. One was whilst skydiving and the “toggle/handle” for the main parachute had managed to be tucked up inside the parachute casing and was therefore hidden from site. Being at around 1000 feet above sea level and plummeting towards the earth at terminal velocity was not the time to be going into denial about my situation. Now was the time to work on the problem with no thoughts for “how dare this happen to me” or, more correctly, “who was the idiot that packed my parachute?” (it was me by the way). Now was the time to eliminate all extraneous thoughts and focus on the task at hand. And, yes, time did appear to slow down, and I did successfully deploy the reserve parachute. Another time was whilst playing sport and all thoughts except for the here and now were eliminated and a level of heightened awareness was attained.
This state of awareness is also called being “mindful”. In some ways it is mis-named as it is really about being “ego-less” as much as it is about being “mind-full” . As we have seen in earlier posts the ego is the one that concentrates on the impression of self and applies all the value judgements to situations in an attempt to elevate its own status, usually at the expense of others (including the Consciousness/Spirit/Soul . It is interesting that when the source of the ego, the body, is threatened that the Ego goes into hiding and we are able to attain a state of mindfulness, in other words the ego is a COWARD.
The good news is that being mindful doesn’t require having the bejeebers scared out of you and we can bring this level of heightened awareness into everyday situations. This level of mindfulness is attained by establishing a practice that thrives on Soul Food as mentioned in previous postings and results in the Ego Hound being hounded into submission. Simply it involves the practice of being in the here and now. This is one of the purposes of meditation, in all its formed, as it trains the mind to be able to ignore the ego and, as a result, we can bring our mind to bear on our choice of subject.
The advantages of being mindful include:
- We see situations as they are,
- We are not swayed by the concept of self or self aggrandizement,
- We can be more analytical and less swayed by negative emotions,
- We can establish and attain a state of happiness,
- We are able to identify the true source and path of happiness.
For this reason practices that encourage waking, and every day, mindfulness include the awareness that the self as a self sustaining and existing entity is a myth and that by focussing on the well being of others we are able to realise happiness. Ahhh the joy of contradictions, by focussing on others we can benefit our own state of being. However if our motivation in doing good works is based on self reward I am sure that this would be feeding the Ego Hound. Motivation Matters!
Next time you are in traffic (walking, driving, riding) and somebody does something that annoys you, be mindful, and compassionate, towards them and, “A’ha” you will find that you are not drawn into the aggressive state. If you can maintain this you will find that your emotion will elevate until you actually feel a sustained level of happiness. This is equally applicable to our work colleagues, our loved ones, our children or total strangers. Be mindful, compassionate, and be happy.
RavenGuide 
Violence in the name of religion – WHAT?
Jul 30
Posted by RavenGuide
Recent events in Myanmar that have seen Muslim minorities subject to violence, murder and displacement in the name of religious differences by the Buddhist majority is an anathema to the objectives and motivations of religion. Some are taking advantage of this to stir up trouble by using doubtful photographs highlighting the violence.
This is not purely based on religious differences, it is, however, an indication of what happens when a people have been subject to a dictatorship and then suddenly released from its bonds and people believe that it is now their TURN to get their own back.
It seems more to be ethnic tribalism at its worst similar to the Northern Island “troubles”, apartheid, or other “Religious Conflicts” waged in the name of one belief system or another when it is no more than a power/land/money grab on the behalf of one group over another.
ALL belief systems should be condemning the violent actions of ANY group regardless of the motivation and religious alliance.
PUT the EGO HOUNDS on the leash and restrain them so that the Soul Dogs can communicate.
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Tags: buddhism, buddhist, ego, ego hound, muslim, myanmar, soul dog, tolerance, violence